SURVEY OF THE ASIATIC MISSIONS 


OF THE 


AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY’ UNION 
WITH SOME SUGGESTIONS AS TO MISSION POLICY 


BY REV. SAMUEL W. DUNCAN, D.D., FOREIGN SECRETARY 


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SOR BEDIENT to your instructions, I present a survey of the foreign work 
OFM), of the American Baptist Missionary Union, with some suggestions 
as to policy and methods. 

Attention is confined to the mission fields of Asia. If we thus 
seem to pass over the remarkable work that, under God, the Society 
has accomplished on the continent of Europe, it is not because this 
is less worthy of attention, but from the limitations time imposes. 
The European missions, never more full of promise than at the 
present time, must be treated by themselves to do them adequate justice. Their environ- 
ment, the conditions governing their prosecution, are entirely unlike those prevailing in 
heathen lands. Policies and methods also differ widely. The attempt to combine them 
in our thought would not only exceed the limits of this discussion, but impair its unity. 

Embraced in the comprehensive term “ Asia,” our survey will include Burma, reaching 
to the frontiers of China in the east and to Assam in the west, the Indian missions, includ- 
ing “that to the Telugus in southern and Assam in northern India, Japan, and parts of the 
great empire of China. This simple enumeration of the lands occupied by the Society, 
with their millions of inhabitants without a knowledge of God, and destined to play an 
important part in the world’s future, will at once suggest that no insignificant portion of 
the wide vineyard has been entrusted to our cultivation. Surely the question — where 
to go, given many fields, which may we select —there is no occasion for raising. In 
fact upon this problem we cannot exercise our wisdom if we would, for the whole globe 
as yet accessible to missionary effort is substantially parceled out among the various 
branches of the Evangelical Christian Church, and occupied by its intrepid missionaries. 
It is most significant, too, how completely this parceling out has been directed by the 
divine Christ, through his ever-present administrator in the church —the Holy Spirit — 
and how little mere human calculations have had to do with it. Into fields and regions 
where, following the dictates of natural foresight, missionaries would hardly have: thought 
of entering, He has thrust them by some unmistakable providence, or some overwhelming 
influence. No mission annals are richer in attestations of this statement than our own. 








There is Judson, borne on to Burma against his own will and wisdom because every other 
region was closed against him, and by the assurance that the sovereign purpose of 
Almighty God was being fulfilled in him, sustained through those first seven years of awful 
isolation, without the consolation of a single convert; there is Boardman and his strange 
introduction to the Karens, a people of whom he was wholly ignorant until God made 
known his purpose of grace for them; and Jewett, rock-like in his determination to die 
among the Telugus, though the denomination should abandon them, because taken up 
to the Mount —he had been granted a vision of the Invisible; and the heroic Scott, 
beckoned, as by angel messengers, to the hill tribes of Assam, willing himself to perish if 
only the gospel might be given to them. These and many other indications of the guiding 
hand of the Most High, no Jess remarkable, are guarantees that the various missions of the 
Society have not been arbitrarily chosen, but are ours by divine assignment. They cry 
out in protest against retiring from one of these fields. Yea, even from the Congo, which, 
as now reorganized, will certainly occupy no inferior place in our family of missions. 
Certainly the direction from heaven to do so should be as unmistakable as that which 
thrust us in, if the brightest glories of our history are not to suffer eclipse, and we be 
verily guilty of discrediting the gracious providences of God. 


BURMA 


In a survey of the missions of the Union we naturally begin with Burma, where Judson 
began his labors in July, 1813. Here, according to the latest report, are 164 %f the mis- 
sionaries of the Society, including single women and the wives of missionaries. This 
force is supplemented by a body of more than 800 natives, who give themselves in various 
ways directly to evangelistic work, besides a number almost as large employed in teaching. 
The number of communicants has reached the total of 38,617, who are gathered into 654 
churches, of which 518 are self-supporting. The annual net gain in membership for the 
past ten years has exceeded 1,000. Thirty-nine principal stations are occupied by the mis- 
sionaries of the Society, with which are directly connected some 600 outstations, efficiently 
manned by native preachers or teachers. There are over 500 schools of various grades into 
which are gathered some 15,000 pupils, besides the flourishing college and theological semi- 
nary in Rangoon and vicinity. Aggressive mission work is carried on in six different 
languages, not reckoning the work done for Eurasians in English. The stations of the 
Society are admirably located for effective evangelization. Not one was selected without 
the most careful investigation upon the spot as to accessibility, sanitation, and other con- 
ditions necessary to be taken into consideration, by men amply qualified to judge in such 
matters. Experience has vindicated the wisdom of the selection. Of these stations, three 
are located at strategic points in the Shan States, with one for Burmanized Shans at Bhamo; 
while two have been opened at convenient points for reaching the Kachins. These six 
stations, if effectively sustained, ought to meet the requirements of these races for years to 
come. For the Chins, a vigorous people and now becoming susceptible to missionary 
effort, there are at present two stations; the rest, saving one center for work among 
Telugus, being about equally divided between the Karens and Burmans. The reports 
show a vast amount of faithful, self-denying effort at all these stations, with varying 
results as regards fruitfulness. In many it is still the season of seed-sowing, the time of 
harvest having not yet come; but nowhere is good promise for the future wanting. The 
development of the spirit of benevolence among the native Christians has been a marked 
feature in the work, and the large recent increase in the volume of their offerings for the 
maintenance of church and school indicates a quickened sense of personal responsibility. 


Let no one, however, imagine that all the requirements of this interesting field are 
being met, and that we have nothing to do but congratulate ourselves upon what is 
being accomplished. It still remains too sadly true that as yet we have worked only 
about one-third of the old Burman empire; there are fully two-thirds of the population 
with whom we have no real contact, nor has any other society. In the wide region west 
of the Irrawaddy, including the fruitful and populous valley of the Chindwin, bounded 
on the west by Arakan and on the north by the hills of Assam, we have no foothold. 
Even in those portions of Burma where the Society has carried on its work, comparatively 
slight impression has been made on Burmans and their traditional religion — Buddhism. 
We have not yet really grappled with this hoary cult which dominates the majority of the 
people of the Orient; our chief successes have thus far been confined to the Karens. 
The thousands of communicants upon our rolls, and the self-supporting churches and 
flourishing schools pertain mainly to this people. For their religious and educational 
training, leaving out the missionary staffs of the college and seminary as equally employed 
for both races, the report of a year ago shows forty-nine missionaries of both sexes em- 
ployed, as against forty-five for the whole Burman race. And yet the Karens, every tribe 
included, according to the last census, cannot be said to exceed seven hundred thousand, 
while the Burmans number more than six million. They are the dominant race of 
Burma. Their language is the prevailing language, and it is only a question of time when 
it must supplant the other vernaculars. They furnish the stronghold of Buddhism in the 
East. Notwithstanding the dethronement and exile of King Thibaw, its once royal head, 
Buddhism, so far from being a decaying religion, is vigorous, aggressive and proselyting, 
every year probably making more converts from the Pwo Karens than does our own 
mission. Certainly it must be patent to all that Burma will never be evangelized until the 
Burmans are evangelized. 

What shall be done in view of this vast disparity between our efforts for the Karens 
as contrasted with that for the Burmans? Without questioning for one moment the 
wisdom of the Society’s policy in the past, when all the circumstances are taken into 
account, does not this disparity now raise questions which st have a place in its future 
missionary policy as regards Burma? In the distribution of our resources of men and 
money, must not a larger proportion fall to the eight million of Burmans, and a much 
larger share of responsibility for Burma’s evangelization be laid upon the Karens? Is it 
too much to hope that from this interesting people may yet come a company of evangelists, 
who, fired with the apostolic fervor of Ko Thah Bu, shall yet reproduce among the Burmans 
the marvels of grace that, under his instrumentality were wrought among the Karens? 
Race prejudice, to some extent the smouldering fires of old animosities, together with 
insufficient education, stand in the way of the realization of these hopes. These are 
obstacles that can be overcome. Shall not the efforts of all Karen missionaries, re-en- 
forced by the support and expressed wish of the denomination, be directed to this end? 

The crowding of the Chinese into Burma presents another interesting missionary 
problem for the Society’s consideration. These represent a much higher type of China- 
men than those we have become so familiar with in America. They become permanent 
settlers in the country, intermarry with the Burmans, are growing in wealth and getting into 
their hands a large part of the mechanical industries of the country. They appeal strongly 
to the immediate consideration of the Union, not only for the sake of their own salvation, 
but because they are destined to furnish a most important auxiliary to mission work among 
the Burmans. No longer should work among them be delayed. It can be conducted with 
slight expenditure, inasmuch as Chinese only need to be employed who can be placed 


under the direct supervision of one or more of our resident missionaries without seriously 
interfering with their special work. 

Any survey of the work in Burma would also be defective that failed to notice the 
present growth and prosperity of the seminary and the college. Every year the ranks of 
the ministry are swelled by the addition from the former of large numbers of devoted and 
earnest young men, speaking various languages, who are not only ready to shepherd the 
churches at home, but to go to the “regions beyond.” In the past five years the college 
has grown from less than a hundred to 473 pupils in the various departments. Here 
all the races represented in Burma meet together on a common ground, and are taught 
through the common medium of the English language. The institution is thus specially 
adapted for meeting the requirements created by the diversity of tongues, and for furnish- 
ing in the future the workers which the times will demand. In the normal department, 
through the training of the future teachers of Burma there are vast possibilities for the 
exercise of a wide influence throughout the land for Christ and his truth. The maintenance 
of this growing institution, so indispensable to the mission, without a dollar of productive 
endowment, has been a serious problem, especially in these last years of financial straitness, 
when enlargements of operation are rendered imperative as a result of the institution’s pros- 
perity. There should be a medical department and a department for the Chinese. With 
a slight annual outlay both these departments would speedily become self-supporting, and 
would add materially to the strength of the mission. We cannot hope, however, that the 
needs of this prosperous institution can be met from the yearly contributions to the treasury. 
Will not some friends of Christian education come forward in this time of need, and, by 
furnishing a moderate endowment, not only save this valuable interest from peril, but confer 
an incalculable benefit to the whole Burman mission? 

Nor should we forget the place which the printing-house at Rangoon holds in the 
evangelization of Burma. From its presses issue every year the scriptures or parts 
thereof, and a carefully selected Christian literature in eight different languages, including 
the English. Except for its beneficent agency there are peoples to whom the printed page 
would never come, for the means for furnishing it do not elsewhere exist. The mission 
annals of Burma abound with illustrations of the quickening influence of the Society’s 
press. There are many, not only from among the living, but from those now in glory, to 
whom its tracts or leaflets first brought the message of salvation. Its usefulness was 
never more manifest than at the present time, and never was it more needed when printing 
presses in Rangoon, owned and conducted by natives, are devoted to the printing of a 
Buddhist literature, which in attractive forms is exposed for sale on pagoda platforms, at 
steamer landings, and wherever people are likely to congregate in all parts of Burma; and 
yet the dilapidated building in which its operations are conducted has become wholly 
inadequate for the increased service required, if indeed it is not nigh being condemned by 
government as no longer safe. How shall a home be secured for the mission press which 
may enable it to multiply its agencies for diffusing the gospel, and that shall be worthy of 
the honorable position which the Society holds among the institutions of Burma? Your 
committee has been criticised for incurring debt; but if the constituency of the Union could 
but realize what painful restraint has been exercised in this and a score of similar cases 
where timely assistance granted would have greatly advanced the work, this criticism 
would have been changed to sympathy and liberal co-operation. 

The Society has spent eighty-four years of labor in Burma, and they have not been in 
vain. A vast missionary force has been accumulated, solid foundations laid in thousands 
of converts, hundreds of self-supporting churches and scores of vigorous Christian schools 


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which, backed by your sympathy and prayers and co-operation, cannot fail in the near 
future to result in large and influential Christian communities, independent of aid from 
abroad for the maintenance of the institutions of Christianity. The new conditions which 
the inrush of immigration from all quarters of the East, the steady development of the 
resources of the country, and the progress of its railroad systems are introducing, make 
Burma a more interesting and important field for missionary operations than ever before, 
and should continue to give it a warm place in the heart of the denomination. 


ASSAM 


Turning now to Assam, where our fathers began work in the hope of connecting this 
portion of Northern India by a chain of mission posts with Burma, a varied and interesting 
field opens before us. The hoped-for connection with Burma has not yet been effected, 
but a survey of the years that are gone shows that no mission has been more fruitful in 
conversions in proportion to the labor expended upon it than has Assam. As in Burma, 
the missionary Operations in the country are to a great extent in the hands of our own 
denomination, and a peculiar responsibility attaches to the Society on this account. In 
the providence of God, too, as we believe, the experience in Burma among the Karens has 
been in the main repeated among the hill tribes of Assam. The first efforts at evangeliza- 
tion were directed to the Assamese inhabiting the Brahmaputra valley, the dominant people 
having an organized religion in Hinduism. Results were difficult and slow, and compara- 
tively little progress was made. For some wise purpose God opened to us the Garos, who 
were hungry for the gospel, and then the Nagas, and latterly the Kohls. Among these 
peoples the truth has had free course, and many and abundant have been the triumphs of 
the gospel. Good progress has been made among them in the line of self-support, and the 
results would be rendered vastly greater by the introduction of the common industries. 
Let these hill people once be taught how to utilize their mountain streams, which now idly 
lash themselves into foam in their plunge from rocky precipices, and the establishment 
among our native Christians of intelligent, industrious, self-supporting Christian communi- 
ties would not be a remote possibility. The beginnings in this direction that have been 
made at Gauhati and Tura have met with such encouragement as to give assurance that 
this is no wild prophecy. Nothing but financial limitations have interfered with enlarge- 
ment in this direction. 

It is possible that our success among the hill tribes of Assam has been purchased at the 
expense of a neglect of the Assamese, for it is true that the work done by the Society for 
them, the most numerous, the most influential of all the peoples of Assam, is comparatively 
insignificant. Assam will never be evangelized until the Assamese have the gospel, any 
more than will Burma without the conversion of the Burmans. That the work is difficult 
and meets with a tardy response cannot certainly justify a great Christian body, professing 
to take Christ’s last commission as their marching orders, in turning from it. The future 
mission policy for Assam must take into account the Assamese with the work readjusted 
with reference to this. The present time has in it some new features by way of encour- 
agement for such an effort. Interest in education has recently been awakened among the 
Assamese in the Brahmaputra valley. The number of pupils enrolled in the government 
schools shows this. There were 40,734 enrolled in these schools in six districts in 1894, 
and the number has been increasing by more than a thousand each year since then. The 
significance of this is a larger number of people, young and old, who are able to read, and 
with the advance of enlightenment, a modification of the existing prejudice against reading 
Christian literature. With a greatly augmented contingent able to read the scriptures and 


Christian tracts, the opportunity for work by the Society among this people is perceptibly 
enhanced. To meet this, a revised edition of the New Testament is just coming from the 
press, soon to be followed by the Old Testament; but these leaves for the “healing of the 
nations ” must be promptly and effectively followed by the living preacher, if the “ word of 
God ” is to “ grow and multiply.” 


TELUGU 


The Telugus are associated in our thoughts with the most remarkable triumph of the 
gospel in the annals of modern missions. Ina paper read at the Anniversary held in 1890, 
Dr. Murdock pleaded for at least fifteen new families to save from retrogression the Telugu 
converts that had joined the mission in such vast numbers. The Society was tardy in 
responding to these appeals, but in the years 1892 and 1893 some thirty missionaries, 
wives and single women included, were sent to the field. Their arrival was timely, and 
vast districts, studded with villages too numerous for one missionary to attempt to super- 
vise, were subdivided and assigned to the new comers. Though a large special fund was 
raised for the sending forth of these new laborers, it scarcely provided for their passage 
and support the first year. This greatly increased force was then thrown upon the general 
resources of the Society. New bungalows had to be built for them, and increased appropria- 
tions made for the support of native preachers and evangelists in the subdivided districts. 
The large debt incurred and recently liquidated was largely due to this cause. It is not 
too much to say, however, that this timely re-enforcement in an zzpPortant sense saved the 
Telugu mission and relieved the denomination of the certain odium that would have rested 
upon it, had the great harvest which thrilled the hearts of Christians all over the world 
been suffered, from our neglect, to perish. Will any man dare say that these results were 
purchased at too high a cost, even though the debt was incurred? Would American 
Baptists have been willing to have saved the few thousand dollars involved at the price of 
eternal loss to the kingdom of God? 

Among the many gratifying results of this re-enforcement of the Telugu field may be 
mentioned the steady elevation of the spiritual life and moral character of the Telugu 
Christians. Multitudes that would have otherwise been overborne by the inconceivable 
iniquities and temptations of their environment have become steadfast and worthy dis- 
ciples. The unorganized masses have been gathered into churches as fast as the condi- 
tions would permit, and good progress was being made toward a realization of the duties 
and responsibilities of church membership, until the work suffered a temporary set-back by 
the recent famine. While there has been no relaxation of effort on the part of our mis- 
sionaries in the direction of persistent evangelization, increased attention has been given 
to education. There is a growing appreciation on the part of Christian parents of the 
value of education for their children, and they are now co-operating with the efforts of 
the Society as never before. 

This is seen in the progress of the schools at Ongole, Nellore and elsewhere, and in the 
raising of the standard of entrance to the Theological Seminary at Ramapatam. With 
the opportunities now afforded at this institution for the training of preachers, the outlook 
for the Telugu mission is bright with promise if the work shall continue to be adequately 
sustained, There is danger lest the marvels of grace wrought in this mission in the past 
should create in us a feeling of contentment, and blind our eyes to the magnitude of the 
work yet to be done and the difficulties that still beset the mission. There remains much 
land yet to be possessed. What are the fifty thousand or more numbered in our member- 
ship to the eighteen million who speak the language familiar to our missionaries? There 


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are millions yet of the Telugus who have never heard the gospel from us, or from the mis- 
sionaries of any other society. We are in direct contact with Mohammedanism at many 
of our stations, but as yet we have made but slight impression upon its votaries. There 
has no real breach been effected in the wall of caste, which still interposes a haughty and 
determined resistance to the progress of the gospel. Our success has been among the 
lowest classes, the Malas and Madigas, who have joined us ingreat numbers. There is no 
occasion for the slightest discouragement in this, for it seems to accord with the Master’s 
plan. But let us not lose sight of the fact that our work in Southern India has scarcely 
more than begun. Evidences multiply throughout our wide mission field that the Sudras, 
or agricultural class, the possessors of estates and able from their own resources to sustain 
religious institutions, are being more and more affected by the influence of Christianity. 
Representatives of this class are being found among our converts in increasing numbers. 
A spirit of deep unrest and of earnest inquiry is also prevalent among the Brahmans. 
Without doubt there are many secret believers among them who have not yet found the 
grace or strength to openly avow the Christ. The feeling is prevalent among all classes in 
India that great changes are impending. This is no time to relax our efforts, but rather to 
increase them. God will surely reward a patient continuance in well doing in the future 
as he has in the past. Present indications certainly afford ground for the expectation of 
future large ingatherings that shall not only swell the numbers of the church, but also 
bring to the service of our Lord a vast increment of social and material forces. 


CHINA 


Until our relations to Spain became uppermost in the thoughts of Christendom, ques- 
tions affecting China’s future were all-absorbing. The changes that have come over this 
vast empire since the close of the war with Japan, the revolution of ideas, are unparalleled 
in the history of modern times. In place of stagnation and of an iron-bound conservatism 
contemptuous of anything new, there is now an intense eagerness for the introduction of 
Western ideas, Western facilities for inter-communication, Western science and literature. 
The transformation now taking place in China can be likened to nothing less than a resur- 
rection from the dead. Time will not permit us to dwell in detail upon this mighty move- 
ment. When we see the rulers, high and low, in Pekin and in the provinces, convinced 
that their former exclusion of Europeans and all European ideas was a grave error, and 
that now they must change this policy; when we see the highest literary doctors in Pekin 
and elsewhere, who rule the policy of the government throughout the empire, and who were 
formerly opposed to missionaries, now so friendly as to seek their advice and co-operation 
in inaugurating moral and educational reforms; when it comes to pass that the fierce 
gentry in the province of Hunan, who had sworn to drive Christianity out of the empire, 
own their error and invite a prominent missionary to become a professor in their chief 
college ; when the publications of the Christian Literature Society for China are so eagerly 
sought by the leaders of China’s literary class that the sales of the same have risen from 
$818 in 1894 to more than $12,000 in 1897, and that the demand far exceeds the supply; 
when leading Chinese scholars come forward with articles against foot-binding, and these 
efforts are being supported by societies of eminent Chinese ladies ; when railroads and fac- 
tories are multiplying, and schools for Western learning are springing up in every province ; 
when liberal contributions of money are being received from viceroys and others high in 
state for the diffusion of Christian and general knowledge among the Chinese; when bap- 
tisms of converts in every part of the land are multiplying, and inquirers (from whatever 
motive) can be numbered by the thousands, it must be evident to the dullest apprehension 
that an era of immense significance as regards Christianity is dawning in China. 


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Your Executive Committee have not been unobservant of this movement. In a paper 
read before this body by Dr. Murdock in 1890, he referred to “the moral desolation of 
China’s four hundred millions,” and the comparative insufficiency of the Union’s efforts 
with only two central points of missionary occupation —at Swatow and Ningpo. Since 
then strenuous efforts have been made to enlarge the area of operations. The work, hope- 
fully begun by Messrs. Upcraft and Warner in Northwestern China, has been greatly 
strengthened. It has passed successfully through the fires of persecution, and has come 
forth purer and stronger for the trial. With three well-established stations at strategic 
points, vigorously manned and in harmonious co-operation with each other, a future of 
successful achievement under God is assured. 

In Central China at Hanyang, itself a great city, and in close proximity to Hankow, 
still greater, a station has been firmly established, land purchased, and permanent build- 
ings have been erected. During the past year the staff has been strengthened by the 
addition of experienced workers; a church of twenty-one members has already been gath- 
ered, whose liberality and zeal justify the expectation that these are the first fruits of 
a consecrated host soon to be marshalled for the regeneration of Central China. 

The work at Swatow has been extended, and new stations opened at Ungkung, 
Chauchaufu, Kityang, and among the Hakkas of the district. These points have all been 
admirably chosen, and are already rendering a good account of themselves. Even more 
would have been attempted, following up the movements of Divine Providence, but for the 
financial difficulties with which the Society has been struggling for the past four years. 

China’s population exceeds that of the white race. Its evangelization would be decisive 
in the conflict between Christianity and heathenism. Missionaries who have been longest 
in China, and have observed most carefully the tendencies of the present time, are confident 
that the events now occurring, if rightly improved, turnish the possibility of its speedy con- 
version, ‘ This is the Lord’s doings, and is marvellous in our eyes,” but it lays upon every 
follower of the Lord Jesus a serious responsibility. 


JAPAN 


And what shall we say of Japan, so suddenly emerged from comparative obscurity 
and now enrolled among the great powers of the earth? The real secret of her wonderful 
progress is to be traced to the introduction of Christianity. It will be a great mistake, 
however, to conclude that Japan has been extensively evangelized as yet, or is in any sense 
a Christian nation. A wonderful vantage ground for Christianity has been gained, but the 
great work of making this ambitious and self-confident people obedient to the Lord, is yet 
to be accomplished. Four-fifths of its population are still firmly held in the iron fetters of 
Buddhistic superstition. The conflict with heathenism has been rendered more compli- 
cated by the extensive introduction among the educated classes of Western materialism 
and agnosticism. 

The work of our Society has been confined mainly to the humbler people. Small in 
comparison with that of other missionary boards, American and English, it has yet been 
in one sense no less fruitful. Comparative statistics show as large a number of acquisitions 
to the faith in proportion to the amounts expended as in any other society. There has 
been a steady growth in the efficiency of our missionary equipment. Our theological 
school is becoming more and more a center of power and blessing, and grows in favor with 
the Japanese. Our Christian academy for boys in Tokyo, finally opened after several 
years of deliberation and -effort, has fully justified all expectations. In this school two 
ideas have been kept steadily in mind: a preliminary training for those intending to enter 


8 


the seminary with the ministry in view, and the creation, by a judicious course of education, 
of an intelligent laity. With the conditions, social, industrial and educational, now pre- 
vailing in Japan and likely to be intensified in the future, the hope of Christian missions 
under God lies in a well-qualified ministry and in an intelligent, high-minded body of lay- 
men. It will at once be seen, therefore, how indispensable is a school of this nature under 
strictly Christian and denominational influences. The existence of this school is just now 
jeopardized by the recent destruction by typhoon of the buildings that sheltered it. What 
to do for the future in view of the diminished resources of the Society is a problem embar- 
rassing to your committee. May not some light be thrown upon this problem through the 
Spirit-prompted liberality of some of those who shall now hear of its needs? 

Enlarged facilities and a new impulse to mission work in Japan will be given when 
the new treaties go into effect in July, 1899. Then the present passport system will be 
abolished, which has to a large extent shut up missionaries in a few centers and restricted 
free inter-communication with the rural districts, and the whole empire will be open to the 
free approaches of the messengers of salvation. Would that we might be in condition to 
welcome this new era! We need an immediate addition to our depleted missionary forces. 
We have no representative in the northern part of Japan. Two new families at least 
should now be in preparation for the enlarged opportunities which are wrapped in the 
womb of the future. 


SUGGESTIONS AS TO POLICY AND METHOD 


This hasty survey of these mission fields may very properly be followed by some sug- 
gestions relative to the policy and methods of the Society for the future. In this connec- 
tion there should be emphasized a steadfast adherence to that which has been eminently 
characteristic of the Society’s policy in the past; namely, the prominence given to direct 
evangelization, the personal contact of the living preacher with those who are perishing, a 
wisely conceived and urgent effort to win their acceptance of the gospel message. This is 
first in all missionary operations, as it is first in the things enjoined by the Great Commis- 
sion: “Make disciples of all the nations.” All other forms of activity, medical missions, 
schools, industrial work, are subsidiary to this one supreme endeavor, and possess a value 
in proportion as they promote evangelization or directly tend to conserve and extend its 
results. Familiarity with our mission fields warrants the conviction that there has been no 
waning in loyalty among our missionaries to this fundamental requirement. In the danger 
- that exists lest this sovereign purpose should become weakened or obscured amid the com- 
plexity which missionary activities have in these modern times assumed, it is fitting that 
the minds of all at home and abroad should be held firmly to that which is central in 
missionary work. 


THE TRUE IDEAL OF MISSIONS 


It is of vast importance also that our convictions as to the ultimate aim of missions 
should be sound and scriptural. Uncertainty and error at this point must be held 
responsible for some wasteful expenditures of money and effort in the past for unwise 
methods, and no small amount of error in the training of native converts. This was a 
result, doubtless unavoidable, in the inauguration of an enterprise so entirely new and so 
remote as the introduction of Christianity among strange and hostile peoples. The time has 
come, however, for profiting by the experiences of the past, and to undo, even though the 
task may be attended with difficulty, all that with the best of intentions has been wrongly 
done. It should be made clear in all our work that the ultimate aim of the missionary is 
to plant Christianity ; that the work of sustaining and extending it after it has been firmly 





planted must be relegated to the peoples themselves who are directly affected by its 
blessings, and whom he must train from the start with the expectation of their assuming 
this responsibility. Mission boards cannot be expected to perpetually sustain native 
churches; that task devolves upon the native church in each land. Beginning with the 
preaching of the gospel there follows the planting of the church, but so planting it that 
the thought of becoming itself a witnessing church, a center of light and spiritual power, 
under God the direct agency of salvation for its surrounding people, should always be 
dominant. It should never be forgotten that however much foreign boards may do, those 
vast eastern lands, now under the thrall of heathenism, are to be evangelized and Chris- 
tianized, not by missions, but by the churches, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, ‘“‘ when these: 
churches shall have been securely planted by missionaries.” In this light the work of the 
missionary at any given point should be considered as temporary; it may indeed outlast 
his life, still it is destined with God’s blessing to have an end. When the churches shall 
have reached a certain point the missionary may expect to move forward. To use a 
simile drawn from military science, he is like “the general who penetrates the enemy’s 
country just as fast as he can secure the key points.” The late Dr. Lawrence rightly ex- 
presses this relation of mission boards and missionaries in these fitting words: ‘“ Our part 
is to organize individuals whom we may convert into an indigenous, independent and ex- 
pansive church, which shall be the type of a native and reproductive Christianity. We 
are to found this church on Christ and the Apostles, to train it from the start in principles 
of self-reliance, self-control and self-propagation. We are to develop its ministry, found 
its institutions, organize its work. From that point the attitude of the mission to the 
church and of the missionary to the native pastor is to be that of John the Baptist to 
Jesus: ‘He must increase, but I must decrease.’ ” 

Of course the great point is to know when the time shall have come to lay this re- 
sponsibility on the native church, It will vary in different lands and with the varying 
social and industrial conditions of the people among whom we labor, but it should be made 
unmistakably clear that such a time szus¢ come; for it will readily be seen, if this central 
aim is kept steadily in view, how it will color the instruction given by the missionary, how 
vitally it will affect his methods of work, and greatly hasten the time when the native 
church can be thrown upon its own resources, leaving the missionary free to penetrate the 
regions beyond. Were this ideal kept predominant, possibly missionary establishments 
would be rendered less extensive and costly, and certainly a decisive shock would be 
given to the nerveless, indolent dependence of the natives upon the missionary and the 
supplies furnished by the Foreign Board, which has undoubtedly been an evil and a hin- 
drance to missionary operations. 


SELF-SUPPORT 


The foregoing thought has been dwelt upon somewhat at length because of its close 
connection with the development of self-support, which the Union should incorporate as a 
cardinal point in the missionary policy of the future. By self-support is to be understood 
the organization of individual believers at the earliest favorable moment into independent 
churches, who shall be encouraged where possible to call and ordain, under the supervision 
of the missionary, suitable men as pastors. Where it is not possible, the appointment by 
him, after the apostolic method of elders, who shall have charge of the services and the 
work of the church. Such churches should be expected to provide for themselves places. 
of worship without calling upon foreign aid, or in case assistance is extended, such aid 
should be strictly supplementary to their own utmost exertions. They should be expected 


10 


to maintain their own pastors, providing for them such support as shall be in keeping with 
the social conditions of the membership. When the question of education becomes an 
important one, they should also have laid upon them the duty and responsibility, so far as 
possible, of supporting their own schools. To attain the /// ideal of a New Testament 
Church they should be led to go even further than this, and lay by something toward the 
direct evangelization of the surrounding heathen. In some of our missions all of these 
results have been successfully reached to the glory and praise of Christ ; and it is worthy 
of note that the churches which have contributed most to this result in that mission of the 
Union which leads the van in self-support, are those which from the beginning received no 
aid whatever from the Society. The Executive Committee have taken advanced ground 
in regard to this movement, so vital to missionary progress. By a rule adopted a year ago, 
they have declined to give appropriations to the ordained pastors of churches. In lieu of 
this has been substituted small grants in aid to the churches, but only to such as show 
themselves worthy by doing all they can for their own support. The native churches, too, 
are for the most part building their own meeting-places. Only in very exceptional cases 
are appropriations now made for this purpose. It is of paramount importance that 
emphasis at this time should be given to this policy by the emphatic endorsement of the 
Society. For it must be said that there is wanting concerted and progressive action at 
this point on the part of some of our missionaries. Many are steadfastly and successfully 
at work along these lines. Others are wavering and uncertain, if not in opinion at least 
in method. It should be made distinctly clear to all what the Union’s policy is, and that 
there is no disposition to modify it, or to relax effort.in establishing self-supporting, self- 
governing, self-propagating churches; that we believe that Christianity in India or China 
or Japan must some day stand upon its own basis as it does in our own land; and that the 
Society purposes now to adjust its work with this object clearly in view. It may be true 
that the demands, which the realization of this ideal lay upon the natives, will at the first 
reduce the lists of converts. Is it, however, anything more than the faithful application 
of the tests which our Lord himself applied, when he directed the multitudes who were 
thronging upon him, to calmly consider the cost of discipleship? Certainly if at the out- 
set the number of baptisms should be diminished, the loss in quantity would find an ample 
compensation in the improvement in quality, for a strong temptation to embrace Chris- 
tianity for gain would be removed. Better still, native pastors and evangelists would cease 
to be isolated from the sympathy and life of their people by looking to the mission for 
their support; while in the churches robustness would supplant the chronic debility which 
is always the result of servile dependence. 


MASTERY OF THE VERNACULARS 


It is important that the Society emphasize the necessity of its missionaries acquiring a 
fluent command of the vernaculars. The vital relation of such command with the largest 
missionary success is too obvious to require argument. It remains true, however, that 
many on the field have failed in acquiring a fluent use of the languages in which they are 
called to address the natives. It is not putting it too strongly to say that this has been a 
weak point in our work. The responsibility for this condition does not rest alone with our 
missionaries, but with the method hitherto too commonly pursued in sending forward new 
men. Instead of placing such under circumstances where the first year could be given 


without interruption to the study of the language, they have in too many cases been forced 


to take up the work which some returning missionary has laid down; thus, all inexperi- 
enced, assuming responsibilities too arduous even for one long on the field. How was it 


II 


as 


possible in such circumstances to conquer new and difficult tongues sufficiently formidable 
to one devoting his entire time to their acquisition? This course has not been one of 
choice, but has been largely due to the limited and uncertain resources of the Society. To 
continue this method is sure to be attended with these results: either the new missionary, 
unless he is a man of rare philological gifts, will fail to become a linguist, or, overcome and 
discouraged in spirit, if not permanently broken in health in the attempt to compass duties 
too numerous for any one man, he will fall slavishly into methods of work already existing, 
whether good or bad, because he has no time to carefully formulate better methods of his 
own. Strenuous effort has recently been made to break loose from this vicious usage of 
the past. Care has been exercised in the case of every new appointee sent out that he 
should be so located for the first year, at least, as to have the benefit of the presence 
of an experienced missionary, and relief from all the responsibility of a station. The 
committee, too, have adopted a system of examinations in the vernaculars whereby every 
new comer is required within three years of his arrival on the field, to pass at least two 
successful language examinations. It is a part of this new régzme that failure in passing 
these examinations shall furnish sufficient occasion for discontinuance of further connec- 
tion with the Missionary Union. To be just in the application of this rule the Society 
must do its full part in affording every new missionary a fair opportunity for uninterrupted 
study. An appeal may well be made to the constituency of the Union to give serious con- 
sideration to this important subject. It would be an immeasurable blessing to the work if 
a designated fund could be created having especial reference to. the sending out of new 
missionaries. Whether this is feasible or not it is of paramount importance that your 
committee should have it in their power to re-enforce your mission stations in a way that 
would be most productive; and that instead of being compelled to wait until the last 
moment when a worker has fallen on the field and some one must be instantly thrust in 
his place, they may be enabled to anticipate by a year, at least, such emergencies, and 
place new men so that they can enjoy a period of training and preparation for the respon- 
sibilities to be assumed. 


EDUCATION 


The policy of the Society with regard to schools has been and is now, a conservative 
one. These cannot be regarded as a substitute for the living preacher, or even as a 
preparation for the work of evangelization. Our schools have sprung up where converts 
have multiplied, and the very acceptance of the gospel has awakened longings and aspira- 
tions which under the blight of heathenism were dormant. Located as our Asiatic mis- 
sions are, largely under the British flag, the necessity of educating the young has been 
thrust upon us as a buttress to our evangelizing work and as a safeguard for the youth of 
our Christian constituency against the agnosticism and the materialism they would inevi- 
tably imbibe from the government and other schools, which they are sure to enter, unless 
the craving for knowledge was supplied under the auspices of the mission. The expenses 
of these schools, apart from the salaries of our own missionaries upon some of our mission 
fields, are wholly borne by the natives themselves, and everywhere such aid as they can 
render is exacted. There has been a steady growth in the support of their schools on the 
part of the natives. The outlay of the Union does not seem to be for this branch of 
service out of proportion to the whole amount expended for mission work on our fields. 
Last year, including the work of the women’s societies, the total expenditure for schools 
was $40,313.99, a little more than one-thirteenth of the entire appropriation of the Union. 
Of this sum only $11,085.75 was from the direct funds of the Union. Of this $11,085.75 


12 


more than $5,000 was from the income of the Ongole College endowment fund, while two- 
thirds of the balance was spent in connection with theological seminaries, thus having for 
the most part direct bearing upon the preparation of a competent native ministry. Some 
readjustments, such as the union of several schools into one, particularly for the higher 
grades, where the use of one vernacular is feasible, are being considered, which may still 
further reduce this expenditure. It would seem also a wise policy to avoid henceforth the 
multiplication of boarding. schools. The calls for these, especially in the Telugu field, are 
very urgent, and if funds permitted there is no doubt that their establishment at many 
stations might be a great benefit to such stations. Under existing circumstances, however, 
it would seem to be the wiser policy for a number of stations to concentrate upon one such 
school, so centrally located as to meet the requirements of all. 

It scarcely admits of question that we are far behind as regards our educational equip- 
ment for China, and especially when the present intellectual remazssance is taken into 
account. We have done little or nothing in the way of higher education for young men. 
Native Christians, young and old, showing aptitude for the work of the evangelist, have 
received something in the way of a Biblical training. In most cases such have had a 
very slender foundation of knowledge to build upon, greatly lessening the advantage that 
might otherwise be derived from theological study. The result is that so far as a well- 
equipped native ministry is concerned, we are at the present time at a serious disadvantage. 
Other boards, who have long had their academies and even colleges, are now enriched with 
scores of native preachers and teachers prepared for leadership in this new era that is 
dawning upon China. While on the other hand if the testimony of those who are well 
qualified to speak is to be received, we have not, in the eastern China mission at least, a 
single preacher who would be listened to by any but the lower classes of the people. This 
condition of things must have an end if we are to-take our place in the great work of 
China’s evangelization., The middle and the scholarly class are now turning their thoughts 
to Christianity, and if we are to exert any influence over them, we must have preachers 
who can address such intelligently. It should be the policy of this Society to repair with- 
out delay this oversight by fostering at suitable points secondary schools, similar to our 
academies at home, adjusted in their curriculum to the intellectual conditions now pre- 
vailing, and with a view to furnishing a broad and solid foundation for advanced theo- 
logical and biblical studies. Such a movement will not involve any large cost to the 
Society. The Chinese are not a poor people. After the initial expenditures for suitable 
buildings, necessary apparatus, etc., such schools would be amply supported by the Chinese 
themselves. 


INDUSTRIAL TRAINING 


The time is ripe for the Union to take decisive steps in the introduction of industrial 
pursuits among our native Christians. What has been done already here and there ina 
desultory way, without any cost to the Society, clearly demonstrates how great the advan- 
tages would be of wise and systematic efforts. The ability of the Karens to contribute so 
largely for the support of the work among them is due not a little to the quiet, practical 
efforts that have been made to introduce industries. By persuading them to engage in the 
culture of coffee and other crops, hitherto unknown to them, the productive power of their 
lands has been increased, and the church of Christ has profited thereby. The boarding- 
schools at Toungoo are to a large extent supported by the labors of the boys and the girls 
in printing, bookbinding, and in weaving. All this and much more, as I have said, has 
come about without expense to the Union, and has contributed materially to the progress 


13 


of the gospel. The need is critical that similar movements should be inaugurated else- 
where, and especially in the Telugu mission. The abject poverty of that people and the 
iron fetters of caste, make it impossible for anything to be introduced there without direct 
help from the Society. There is a call at once for a school that shall train young men 
and women in various industrial arts. Such a school is as clearly a help to evangelization 
and a buttress to the rising church as village or other schools can possibly be. Unless 
some method can be devised for putting into the hands of our native Christians the means 
of earning something more than a meager subsistence, the very spiritual prosperity of the 
Telugu mission will become a burden, which of itself will handicap the efforts of the Society 
in further extending the gospel among the heathen. The Telugu Christians for the most 
part are the lowest coolies, without land, or really anything that they can call their own — 
the hewers of wood and the drawers of water — with a scanty prospect, unless a helping hand 
is extended to them, of being anything better. The young people we educate, unless they 
are fit to become preachers and teachers, are in danger of being lifted up from the lowest 
level simply to be thrust back again, hindered rather than helped by their education, for 
adapting themselves to the situations in which they were born. As carpenters, printers, 
blacksmiths, cabinetmakers, shoemakers, weavers, stenographers, they can earn a comfort- 
able living, and open centers for training others and giving them employment in their re- 
spective crafts. An immediate improvement in the social condition would follow, and with 
it an increase of contributing power from which both the school and the church and also 
the work of the evangelist would derive benefit; results which if there were no other, amply 
justify the wise use of mission funds in the promotion of such an object. Aside from this, 
in the Telugu field it is not too much to say that a social and industrial revolution would be 
wrought by organizing and fostering the leather industry, which is peculiarly the industry 
of the Madigas, from which a majority of our converts come. It may be a question with 
some whether the Missionary Union could legitimately engage in this particular form 
of effort. The work, however, might be successfully accomplished through a syndicate of 
Christian men, similar to that existing in Switzerland, in connection with the Basle mission. 
From the net earnings of the various industries of this mission the syndicate every year 
receives a remunerative dividend, after first devoting a liberal sum for the general work of 
the mission board. May not this project, so closely allied to the progress of Christ’s king- 
dom, receive the serious consideration of the philanthropic capitalists among the Union’s 
constituency ? 

What has been said with reference to the Telugu mission is true of Assam and of other 
fields. A clearly defined policy along these lines should be formulated and steadfastly 
adhered to. It should be plainly stated that the Union is only waiting the signal for 
advance, and the requisite means for inaugurating such an advance. It offers the most 
inviting and the safest fields of opportunity, where with the least expenditure the largest 
results spiritually and materially can be realized. This ought to be made so plain that all 
the forces of the denomination shall be concentrated, thus conserving and strengthening its 
own work, and that no occasion may exist for Baptist funds to be diverted to outside proj- 
ects under the plea of promoting a promising and practical line of work which the Society 
itself does not seem to encourage. 


CONCLUSION 


Such are a few of the suggestions which a survey of our Asiatic missions prompt. 
The sustained progress of the work as a whole under the adverse conditions of the last 
four years is something for which to be profoundly grateful to God. . It testifies, notwith- 


14 


Standing the imperfections which are incident to every human effort, to the solid and con- 
scientious character of the work that has been done, and emphasizes its claims to the 
unwavering devotion and support of the denomination. Overshadowed with debt as the 
Society again is, it seems like foolhardiness to outline any policy not immediately promo- 
tive of a reduction in expenditure. It is, however, only simple truth to say that, so far as 
the foreign field is concerned, reduction has been carried to the extreme limit consistent 
with maintaining the integrity and vigor of our missions. Can it be that the inadequate 
resources of the past few years are to be regarded as the final utterance of the denomina- 
tion with regard to its great work of foreign missions? With the phenomenal growth in 
the financial strength of Northern Baptists, must we say that there is a decline of disposi- 
tion and determination to obey the commands of our Lord “ to give the gospel to every 
creature”? With the abundant tokens of the divine favor resting upon the work, plainly 
indicating that the mind and will of God concerning our duty are not changed, dare 
Northern Baptists falter now in their allegiance? Not to underrate the imperative needs 
and magnificent opportunities of the work at home under the auspices of our sister societies, 
it must not be forgotten that there is a divine element inseparable to the success of all our 
efforts in the work of the kingdom.. Our labors and our offerings will suffer in productive 
value if we contravene any great spiritual law connected therewith which God himself has 
established. Is it not a cardinal principle in his economy that “there is that scattereth 
and increaseth yet more; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth 
only to want.” The scattering of the resources of the church in the early part of this 
century to the remotest corners of the earth, in the face of the remonstrance of those who 
thought all our money was needed at home, was the direct occasion of rousing zeal for 
home missions. The very increase to our American and home Christianity, in accordance 
with the divine law, came from the scattering. Shall we, with the rich experiences of these 
past decades, attempt to reverse this method of divine procedure, and think that we may 
augment the prosperity and extension of the home work by crippling the work abroad? 
God forbid! We are persuaded better things of you, fathers and brethren, and with a 
faith unshaken in the purpose of God to give the nations of the earth to the exalted Christ, 
and with unabated confidence in the constituency of this Society, whose instrumentality the 
Lord has so highly honored in the past, I cannot find it in my heart to utter here today 
any timid or uncertain counsels. 


15 








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